A Virginia school district could soon be in trouble with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Education after being accused of a “disturbing misuse of authority.” It comes after a sexual harassment investigation was launched against three high school boys for complaining about the presence of a biological female in the boys’ locker room.
VA Attorney General Jason Miyares announced Monday that an investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) found significant concerns of “potential violations of Title IX, unlawful retaliation, and viewpoint discrimination” by school officials.
“The investigation reveals a disturbing misuse of authority by Loudoun County Public Schools, where students appear to have been targeted not for misconduct, but for expressing their discomfort for being forced to share a locker room with a member of the opposite sex,” said Miyares.
As CBN reported, LCPS returned to the national spotlight after it announced it would launch a Title IX investigation against the three male students simply because they privately expressed they were “uncomfortable” when a biological female changed clothes in the boys’ locker room.
The transgender student filed the complaint after recording and submitting the students’ conversation in the locker room.
The Loudon County School Board policy allows students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms according to gender identity, rather than biological sex. They also have a policy that prohibits video and audio recordings in locker rooms.
One of the parents of Stone Bridge High School students expressed outrage that his child was facing serious consequences for sharing his opinion, while the transgender student only received an in-school suspension for violating the policy of recording his son in the locker room.
“I don’t think my son should be punished for expressing his First Amendment right and being able to ask questions,” Seth Wolfe told WJLA-TV. “They were having a conversation with their peer group. They weren’t directly asking or interacting with this other student, and just the fact that they can’t ask those simple questions, and then if they do, they’re being punished in a way where now we have some serious charges that can affect his future here going forward.”
Earlier this month, VA Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Miyares condemned LCPS’s actions and launched an investigation against the district.
“Title IX was never meant to be used as a weapon against free speech or religious convictions. Every student in Virginia deserves the right to speak openly, think freely, and live according to their conscience without fear of retaliation. Protecting those rights is not political—it’s foundational to who we are as Americans,” Miyares said in a new press statement.
According to the attorney general’s report, the transgender student began using the boys’ locker room in 2023. In 2024, one of the students expressed his discomfort to friends about the trans student’s presence.
When confronted by administrators, two of the three students told school officials they held religious beliefs that men belong in men’s locker rooms and women in women’s locker rooms.
In turn, they were told that the student was allowed to use the facilities of their choice.
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After speaking with administrators, the male students understood they could not “freely speak about LCPS Policy 8040 without facing discipline,” WSET-TV reports.
According to Miyares’ report, after President Trump signed the executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” the students believed they could freely express how they felt about LCPS’s policy and the transgender student’s presence in the locker room.
The three students have never interacted with the transgender students, and a review of the recorded video reveals there were more than 20 boys present in the locker room at the time.
Miyares claims LCPS’s investigation into the incident is a form of retaliation against the students who expressed sincere religious objections to the district’s policy, which allows access to sex-separated facilities based on “gender identity.”
“Rather than safeguarding the constitutional rights of all students, LCPS appears to be punishing those who hold and express faith-based views,” explained the attorney general’s office.
As a result of his findings, Miyares says the next “natural step” is to refer the incident to federal authorities, which includes the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
Miyares told WSET-TV that LCPS is “weaponizing” Title IX.
“To go after students that have both sincerely held beliefs, but also pushing a left-wing ideology that a vast majority of Virginians and Americans find absurd,” said Miyares.
“This is what happens when they push a divisive left-wing ideological agenda, and then they’re telling these students to be quiet when they raise, I think, legitimate objections, they’re now slapped with the mind-blowing intimidation of a Title IX, because a Title IX, it gets attached to your permanent student record. It is something that these students will carry with themselves,” he added.
LCPS maintains it did not launch a Title IX investigation because of the students’ expressed beliefs.
Board Chair Melinda Mansfield and Superintendent Aaron Spence previously told CBN News, “LCPS also complies with federal Title IX regulations, which require the investigation of formal complaints.”
A spokesperson for the school district recently told CBN News that LCPS could not comment on the specifics of Miyares’ investigation.
“First and foremost, LCPS continues to focus on following applicable law and ensuring all students are safe. LCPS is not in a position to provide comment on the Attorney General’s investigation or its purported findings at this time. Specifically, LCPS never received any official communication from the Attorney General opening an investigation beyond press releases and media coverage, was not provided an opportunity to meaningfully participate in any such investigation, and, to date, no findings have been shared with LCPS,” the spokesperson wrote.
LCPS did not confirm whether its investigation is completed.
